This past weekend, my VEX U team (ODU) competed at the Purdue VEX U Winter Vortex Challenge. During qualifiers, we faced an extremely formidable opponent, Worcester Poly technical Institute (GOAT). We had observed their strategy to be heavily focused on their lift, so we devised a strategy to try and block their small bot from getting to the lift. When it came time to lift, we tried to block their small bot, to which they responded by pushing us into their climbing zone. Our entire team urged our driver to leave immediately, which he did. After nearly 30 minutes of discussion (and of course not reviewing the video footage you will see below), the referee determined that because they would have won with the lift, we were disqualified from the match. I’m confused as to why we are disqualified when we were the ones pushed into the climbing zone. A link to the video is below.
Let’s take a look at the specific rule in question.
The rule makes no mention of how a team ends up in their opponent’s Climbing Zone. You are not permitted to enter that Zone during the last 30 seconds of the match. Thus, you are in violation of <SG11> and should be disqualified if it was a Match affecting offense.
I once again will ask you to please read the manual before posting in this forum. I’ve bolded text for emphasis.
The team in question’s strategy was not to draw a penalty. They were clearly trying to get to their Climbing Zone to climb their partner Robot. Thus <SG13> would not apply.